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Notre Dame guard Olivia Miles and Irish coach Niele Ivey after win at #UNC. #ND
Jan 5, 2025
Notre Dame guard Olivia Miles and Irish coach Niele Ivey after win at #UNC. #ND
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really proud of my team this is a really
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tough place to play and I thought we
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came out um you know playing 40 minutes
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had a lot of adversity just within the
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game I thought um they came they came
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out and just did a great job of staying
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Poise um through the runs that UNCC gave
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us um and to just get this one on the
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road is really big I think they started
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with H or with Liv um she was fantastic
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today did a great job just again she's
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Elite and I thought her performance
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today was one of the best I've seen um
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just I mean she's been playing at a high
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level did everything that needed to be
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done for us to get this win I knew how
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important this win was um you know to
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start the new year getting this win on
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the road um I'm really again the
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resilience of our group and for me as a
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coach I just want my team and live knows
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this I just talked about it's really
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rough week for me having my son go down
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a couple days ago they really played for
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me and I really really appreciate that
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because it was really tough and um I'm
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really grateful for them um because they
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really kept my spirits up um and again
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I'm so grateful that the balance that I
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have that I get a chance to play to
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coach this amazing group and they really
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really ignited me as a as a person as a
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mother so I'm really grateful for that
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cuz I knew that this was going to be a
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tough one for me um the entire team just
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just resilient um having Maddie back is
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a big piece of this um her being out
1:13
having the opportunity to play her um
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the team just really embraced her um and
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it was just great to see her healthy on
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the floor thought Hannah came up with
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some big plays I thought Cass and Liza
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um had some big moments and big
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stretches in this game but again I'm
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just have so much gratitude for this
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team so proud of of them this is a
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really really tough league for us to
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come on the road and get this first win
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in the new year with this group I I
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couldn't be more proud of this team all
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right questions in the room yeah coach
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um you know Leo two King today 15
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rebounds y all out Rebound in North
1:46
Carolina by 12 um as you've experienced
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some some injuries in the front Court
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the addition of her how important has
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that been and how big was she today uh
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just really important she she is um one
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of those just Poise leaders uh she's
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never too high never too low she does
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the the Dirty Work you know she's very
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gritty she normally comes up with a
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double double she's two points short of
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that but matching the physicality of
2:09
their post us being God dang they're so
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good so physical we knew that we they we
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really relied on our post to do a great
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job defensively against their post so I
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thought she was really solid she's done
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she's brought so much to our program in
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in a short amount of time we're super
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grateful her versatility but again her
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toughness and her experience you how did
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you want to handle madd's return in
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terms of minutes and how much work you
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could get her in a game yeah so um she
2:35
was supposed to stay between 10 13
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minutes um so I got to ride it 13 uh but
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just trying to get her comfortable as
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well um she's again she's done a
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phenomenal job of getting herself ready
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um kudos to coach Knox and our
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performance team getting her ready and
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strong and ready to perform and uh so I
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was just trying to keeping that window
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and try to give her kind of two minutes
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at the end of the quarter to get her
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comfortable but um every every game
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she's going to get more comfortable and
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she'll be able to have have more minutes
3:00
um but you just don't want to throw her
3:01
in in the fire um while she's trying to
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recover but I thought she was fantastic
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today yeah live just to follow up on
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that how how important is it for this
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team to do what you guys want to do and
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sort of getting her back in the fold and
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back to full speed yeah I mean Maddie
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brings a leadership that is you know
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inexplainable um just her presence on
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the floor really calmed us down um
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knowing I could go to her rely on her
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even though she's you know working to
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get back it's tough for her to to get
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comfortable but she's always there to
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lead us and you know that you know pays
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dividend when we we want to go to you
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know the national championship and and
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want to go to Tampa so um she's just you
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know very important for our team and
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very excited to have her
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back uh they forced 21 turnovers what
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did their defense do to disrupt you
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particularly inside the ark yeah I just
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thought we um yeah they're really great
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defensive team um was expecting for them
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to switch up their defenses uh yeah I
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think just being physical I think they
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they were very physical and every catch
3:55
we felt it they were very disruptive um
3:58
did a great job of getting back in
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transition so um that was something that
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we've worked on all week but sometimes
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you can't work on those things you got
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to be in be in it to to understand the
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physicality so I thought they were very
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physical um but we went through a
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stretch and G credit to live that really
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helped us manage our lead and extend it
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what did you do to try to deny cocking
4:15
the ball inside yeah we've been working
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on all week to push her off the block um
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we working on getting bringing some help
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from the opposite post and bringing some
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help from the wing it really worked on
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ball pressure so we were trying to be
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physical with her and push her off the
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block um you had a high five made
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three-pointers
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today it's it's clear that you know from
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before you're inter and now you're a
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much better a three-point shooter is
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that something how how did you work on
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that during your rehab I feel like I
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didn't work on anything really it was
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really just truly truthfully just my
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confidence I felt like I before you know
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I got hurt I was just I was thinking too
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much when I shot the ball teams were
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going under me I was just in my head and
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I feel like you know it's hard to
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explain but being injured you look at
4:57
things so differently not everything
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matters if you miss a three it doesn't
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matter you know I used to hang on to
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those misses so much and it would make
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me miss more so now I have the mindset
5:06
that just let it fly I've you know put
5:07
the time in I put the work in and um you
5:10
know it's showing on the court coach
5:12
over the years youve proven you can
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develop players' been watching your
5:16
substitution patterns do you have a
5:18
particular um style or how you're
5:20
substituting so well to get players
5:22
minut so then when they get their
5:24
starting time it's not they're not
5:26
greate yeah um honestly it's a feel for
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me I really don't have any preconceived
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thoughts I think every game I've had a
5:33
different lineup this season so just
5:36
trying to adjust through that I try to
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um really feel into the team I have
5:39
great communication with them knowing
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times where they need breaks or um you
5:43
know different lineup different matchups
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depending on who we're playing are
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better together together excuse me so I
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kind of figure that out in practice and
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then in games kind of feel into the game
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but every game I feel like it kind of
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changes I know I know particularly my
5:56
first probably 20 minutes of what it's
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going to look like but now having more
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depth I'm really excited about that
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because that gives our players opportuni
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to get rest but also brings our
6:04
versatility in that hopefully wears
6:06
teams down coach at times it seems like
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in women's basketball there's kind of
6:09
this like fisical gap between the upper
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tier of Powerhouse programs like
6:13
yourself or Yukon or South Carolina and
6:16
almost everybody else how far do you
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think UNC is from like breaking into
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that that mold and how is a game like
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tonight important for them that same
6:24
yeah I mean they're I mean extremely uh
6:26
well coached team and talented team I
6:28
feel like they're they're in a
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conversation you know they've been
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ranked for the um ever since you know
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Courtney has been here um always a super
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physical team always in games you me I
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think they're they're right there you
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know this this league is really tough
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and we are lucky that we got a chance to
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get this win on the road um but they're
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like I said very well coached team they
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have great players um and it's really
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successful program so I think they're
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they're there Li coach has mentioned
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being pretty emotional about yeah you
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know her son I mean she talked about you
6:55
guys playing to give her a spark did you
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guys talk about that yourselves about
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any of that no because it's routine you
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know we always try and play for her um
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it was just even more so now that um you
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know unfortunately Jaden got hurt he'll
7:07
be back better than ever but um yeah we
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always want to play for go iy in every
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game um but there's definitely some
7:13
added fuel to the fire um just given the
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circumstances o you play with such
7:20
Joy yeah can you speak to your mental
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toughness while you smiling on the court
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yeah I mean it's all credit to my injury
7:27
as I mentioned earlier um that was the
7:29
most difficult thing I've ever gone
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through and just being on the court you
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know I have no choice but to smile and
7:34
play with joy especially like the guards
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I get to play with Hannah is the best in
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the country and and Sony as well so I
7:40
just play with such great guards great
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you know players all around um that also
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play with joy so it's hard not to um to
7:47
be the way and and our coach she's so
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passionate and she's always smiling too
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even through the ups and downs so you
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know it's hard not to to play with that
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Joy Olivia you obviously had plent
7:55
highlight where he plays yourself I just
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want to get your reaction to the I don't
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even know how describe it but that one
8:00
drive that Hannah had where she just
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kind of
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like I don't know how to describe it
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either to be honest she that's just
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characteristic of of Hannah and I just
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smiled when it went in because she's
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just yeah this is
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her
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else thank you
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